How do you answer "What are your strengths and weaknesses?"
For a strength, give the claim, the evidence and the link to the role. For a weakness, give an honest, specific habit and the step you are taking to work on it.
- Strength: claim + evidence + relevance to the role.
- Weakness: honest habit + next step.
- German traps: "teamfähig", "belastbar" and "Durchsetzungsvermögen" do not translate word for word.
B1 · Job Interviews · 10 minStrengths and weaknesses in an English interview, taught brick by brick.
A structured ten-slide lesson for B1 learners. Hear a convincing answer in context, meet the strengths and weaknesses formula with a tutor, then practise it in interactive drills before a final quiz. The whole arc takes about ten minutes and nothing requires a signup.
- CEFR levelB1 · Intermediate
- Time to completeAbout 10 minutes
- SkillsBusiness English, Listening, Writing, Speaking
- Bricks10 blocks
01 / 06
What these two questions let you do
The questions "What are your strengths?" and "What is your greatest weakness?" are part of many English job interviews, and both are more of an invitation than a trap. With the first, you show what you do well and prove it. With the second, you show that you can look at your own work honestly and improve it. Neither question asks for a confession or a sales pitch. A good answer is short, specific and calm: two to four sentences, one example, one link to the job. At B1 level you do not need clever vocabulary. You need a clear structure that you fill with your own facts, and a handful of natural phrases. That is exactly what this lesson gives you. Prepare one strength and one weakness for the job you want, say both aloud several times, and keep the facts true. A true, modest example is easier to remember under pressure than an invented impressive one, and it is much easier to expand on if the interviewer asks a follow-up question.
02 / 06
Strength: claim, evidence, relevance
A strong answer to "What are your strengths?" has three parts. First comes the claim: one clear strength in one sentence, for example "I'm good at organising my work." Then comes the evidence, a short, concrete example with a result: "Last year I introduced a shared planning board, and the team met every deadline." Last comes the relevance, one sentence that connects the strength to the role: "That is useful in a job where several projects run at the same time." Choose one strength, not five. A list of adjectives such as "reliable, flexible, motivated" gives the listener nothing to remember, while one small story does. Take your example from your real work: a project, a customer, a team situation, a process you improved. Numbers help when you have them (three weeks, five colleagues, twenty percent), but a clear result in plain words is enough too. If you are not sure which strength to choose, read the job advert and take the quality it names most clearly — as long as you can support it with a true example.
03 / 06
Weakness: honest, specific, with a next step
The weakness question asks for two things: an honest weakness and what you are doing about it. Honest means real, but not damaging for the job. If you apply for a project-manager role, "I am disorganised" is a poor choice; "I sometimes take on too much myself" is real, specific and fixable. Specific means one clear habit instead of a vague personality label. The improvement step makes the answer convincing: "I've started delegating smaller tasks and reviewing the workload every Friday." Notice the tenses. "I tend to…" describes the habit, and "I've started…" or "I'm working on…" describes the action. Then stop — you do not need a long apology or a second weakness. The shape is: habit, step and, if you like, a small result. A weakness answer without a step sounds unfinished. A step without a real weakness sounds like a disguised strength. Only both parts together sound like someone who learns from their own work.
04 / 06
The phrase bank for both questions
Five phrases cover most of what you need, and each one has a job. "One of my strengths is…" opens a strength and takes a noun or an -ing form: "One of my strengths is planning." "I'd say I'm…" softens a claim slightly while staying confident: "I'd say I'm good at explaining technical points to customers." "I tend to…" describes a habit, which makes it a good fit for a weakness: "I tend to take on too much myself." "I'm working on…" shows that an improvement is in progress: "I'm working on delegating more." "I've learned to…" shows what experience has taught you: "I've learned to check the workload every Friday." Together they give you a ready frame for both questions, and they are easy to say aloud. Practise them with business content of your own — a project, a customer call, a team meeting — until the first half of the sentence comes without effort. Then you can spend your attention on the example, which carries the real content of your answer.
05 / 06
German traps: "teamfähig", "belastbar" and friends
Word-for-word translation does not always work for German words that describe work qualities. Depending on the context, adjectives such as "cooperative" or "collaborative" can express "teamfähig"; in an interview, "I work well in a team" is the clear formulation, and "I am very teamable" is not idiomatic English. "Belastbar" becomes "I work well under pressure", not "I am belastable". "Ich habe ein gutes Durchsetzungsvermögen" is not "I have a good enforcement ability"; the usual choices are "I'm assertive" or "I can hold my ground in a negotiation". In these cases the method is the same: ask what the German word describes in action, and say exactly that in a short English verb phrase. A second trap is the classic weakness answer "My weakness is that I am a perfectionist." It is acceptable English, but it is a well-known stock phrase and tells the listener little. A specific habit does more work, for example: "I sometimes spend too long on small details in reports, so I now set a time limit for each draft."
06 / 06
Too modest or too blunt: getting the tone right
If praising yourself feels impolite, you may phrase your answer so cautiously that it sounds unsure: "I think I am maybe a little good at organising." In an English interview, plain statements backed by an example usually sound more professional than hedged ones. The opposite problem exists too. A very direct German "Ich bin schlecht im Präsentieren" can sound harsher in English than you mean. A softer, equally honest version is: "I'm not the strongest at presenting, but I'm working on it — I now practise new slides with a colleague first." The pattern is: name the area gently, then show the step. For strengths the same idea works the other way round: state the claim and move quickly to the evidence instead of apologising. Keep the tone even — no modest mumbling and no big promises. Choose verbs you can support: "I introduced", "I reduced" and "I organised" are easier to defend than "I am the best at…", and they give the interviewer something concrete to ask about.